coolmelbourne.org

We will all be paying for Australia’s biggest polluting companies to keep polluting. Huh! That’s right the bill has just hit $16.4 billion under Big Kevs’ Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS).

The cost has gone up because of 1) the one-year delay in introducing the scheme and 2) the strange idea to give more free permits to the Big Polluters. They will get up to 95 per cent of their carbon pollution permits for free.

The June 2009 study by RiskMetrics has found:

* The top 20 polluters to get handouts will get free permits worth $2.4 billion in the first full year of the scheme (2012), and $11.7 billion in the first five years (2012–17).

* Rio Tinto will receive $565 million worth of free permits in the first full year of the scheme, or at least $2.8 billion over the first five years.  In 2008 Rio Tinto made a lazy $15.8 billion profit.

* Bluescope Steel will receive $210 million worth of free permits in the first full year of the scheme, or at least $1 billion over the first five years.

* The two-year delay to the start of the full scheme means the Government will miss out on $1.4 billion from the six biggest polluting industries.

Click here for full report from The Australian Conservation Foundation 'Cut carbon compo, free up money for low carb jobs'.